When the first of eight shiny new C-130J Super Hercules aircraft landed Tuesday at Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, it brought with it more than just the most capable tactical airlifter in the world.

It also brought strengthened stability, relevance and massive new investment to a major powerhouse of the Mahoning Valley’s economy.

This set of the most modern airborne military transport vehicles represents a stratospheric investment of $878 million in the viability of the reserve station and its surrounding region.

To be sure, much was at stake nine years ago when U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and former U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, along with former U.S. Reps. Democrat Tim Ryan and Republican Bill Johnson and current U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, penned an impassioned plea to Pentagon brass, urging them to replace the 910th Airlift Wing’s fleet of C-130H aircraft with the newer and more sophisticated C-130J aircraft. Such a move, they argued, would insulate the reserve station more securely from downsizing or closure in the next round of Base Realignment And Closures.

Their hard work and targeted lobbying and that of base officials, members of the Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Commission and many others over the past decade ended up reaping ripe and lasting fruit.

After all, the Valley could ill afford the loss of the station. Although it goes unnoticed by many, the U.S. Air Force Reserve base with approximately 60 buildings plays an oversized role in providing a bedrock source of stability for this region’s economic livelihood.

How big? With more than 2,000 employees, it ranks as the largest employer in Trumbull County and the second largest in the Mahoning Valley. Its annual positive impact on the Valley’s economy soars to approximately $150 million.

The superiority of the new model C-130s, which can fly at 22,000 feet at 417 mph, bodes well for a long shelf life for them at the base and for the base itself.

According to the Air Force, the J model reduces manpower requirements, lowers operating and support costs, and provides life-cycle cost savings over earlier models. It can climb faster and higher, fly farther at a higher cruise speed and take off and land in a shorter distance.

Those traits should provide more efficiency for the airlift wing’s mission in supply transport and in its critical role in the American military as the only large-area, fixed-wing aerial spray missions to eliminate disease-carrying insects and pests throughout the world.

Yet as we join others in congratulating those who fought so hard to permanently land the new aircraft here, we also are cognizant that nothing is necessarily forever in military affairs.

With that in mind, base leaders, members of the military affairs commission who lobby on behalf of the reserve station, as well as community members, cannot rest on their laurels. All should continue to aim for sustained growth and maximum modernization of the 72-year-old base. Ongoing projects, including a $25 million fire station to protect the base’s assets more securely and an $11 million project to construct a secure main gate as well as an inspection bay, a gate house and a visitors center, must continue aggressively.

Nothing should be left to chance to guarantee the station continues to maintain a five-star rating for quality, efficiency and productivity in the eyes of the Defense Department and of our community.

A few years back, Retired Air Force Col. Joseph Zeiss Jr., Gov. Mike DeWine’s senior adviser for aerospace and defense, visited the base and called it a “gem” for the Valley and for Ohio’s lineup of military facilities.

With the nearly $1 billion investment in the state-of-the art aircraft and with base leaders and allies tirelessly fighting for additional improvements there, we’re confident that gem will shine even more brightly for many years and decades to come.